“Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. He is perhaps best known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III.”Sorry only kidding Sam hasn’t been appointed Captain of the R&A however there’s a wee bit of truth in the matter

Captain of the R&AOwen Williams is profiling Kiwi actor Sam Neill who has been chosen to play the part of R&A captain Alexander Boothby in the movie Tommy’s Honour which according to Martin Dempster at The Scotsman is, “A film based on the life of golfing legend Old Tom Morris is to open the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.”

Shot by Sean’s Connery’s sonMartin writes, “Shot entirely on location in Scotland, ‘Tommy’s Honour’ is based on the true story of Old Tom and his turbulent relationship with his son, Young Tom…The film was directed by Sean Connery’s son, Jason, who is delighted it will open this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival on 15 June.“It’s so exciting,” said Connery. “I remember standing in the middle of a field in Fife during the shoot and saying to Peter and Jack, Tommy’s Honour might get into the Edinburgh International Film Festival, not in our wildest dreams did we think it would be the Opening Gala opening. That’s fantastic.”Three of the best about Old TomThanks to Golf Now here’s just some of the 10 Things You May Not Know About Old Tom Morris

Age is Just a Number – Old Tom competed in 36 consecutive Open Championships during his career, until he retired from the tournament at the ripe age of 74. He remains the oldest competitor in Open Championship history. As a further indication of his longevity, he also claimed his final Open Championship victory when he was 46-years-old, another record that has yet to be broken.

The Pete Dye of the 1800s – Unbeknownst to most, Old Tom was not only a highly successful golf professional. He was also a very productive golf course architect, designing or remodelling 75 courses, including popular tracks like Carnoustie Golf Links and Muirfield.

Lapping the Field – In addition to his feats of longevity, Old Tom currently holds yet another Open Championship record – the widest margin of victory, as he dominated the 1862 Open Championship, winning by 13 strokes. In fact, his victory margin remained the largest in major championship history until Tiger Woods captured the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 shots.

“It’s difficult to eliminate the reigning champion (Jordan Spieth)”, but he is 156th (out of 204 golfers) on shots from 150-175 yards, 97th on shots from 175-200 yards and 101st on shots from 200-225 yards. He’s simply not hitting the irons as well as he normally has throughout his career,” that’s from Rich Hunt who on April 04 prior to The Masters in an article, “The 20 players who can actually win The Masters,” excluded Jordan Spieth.Spieth’s collapse not surprisingCome April 19 after The Masters’ meltdown Rich headlines his article, “The stats say Spieth’s collapse at The Masters was no fluke,” and provides in great detail and with informative graphics the very fine points of Spieth’s slipping stastics.

“Saw it coming,” some would say including those who said Spieth was surviving on his short game and in particular his putting.Rich writes, “Spieth’s Driving Effectiveness has sustained a flat trend over time. However, his iron play from each of the zones is on a significant decline over time. And it appears to have started right around the 2015 John Deere Classic.”

Come quickly CameronKyle Porter writes, “Spieth flew in his coach, Cameron McCormick, from Dallas into Augusta on Saturday night/Sunday morning from Dallas to join him for an impromptu practice session on the driving range before the final round of the 2016 Masters.”

Rich Hunt writes, “I would imagine the swing changes he (Jordan Spieth) has been working on were done to help out with his driving, which could be sporadic and have the rightward miss. It just appears that those swing changes have come at the expense of his iron play, however, and that is why I did not have Spieth in my 20 Players That Can Win the Masters list. And that will be what he needs to improve in order to get back to his old ball-striking form.”

Wrong and right onIt’s been said that, “There’s lies, damned lies and statistics,” however Rich Hunt’s statistical analysis is without doubt an invaluable aid to the golfer looking for clues on where to sharpen their game however even the best of statisticians can get blindsided and perhaps because there was a Brit involved; Rich is an American.

Quote: “If a player did not play well at Houston (The event preceding The Masters), the odds are that they will not play well at a similar style of course like Augusta National,” and Rich got it wrong. Lee Westwood was on the list of no good at Houston, no way The Masters and yet comes second.

On the right on side, sometimes you have to fine search the data for the accuracy and I have to say I almost missed it. However right there at the very bottom of Rich’s Top 20 was Danny Willett.

“He (Danny Willett) wasn’t like a young Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy or anything. He was good, but he wasn’t that good. I mostly remember his swagger – he was a nice lad but he was cocky and always on the line of being a bit too cocky…”Helen Pidd reporting from the North of England and speaking to Jonathan Pyle, the Birley Wood’s head professional who used to play against Danny Willett.Nature or nurture?Helen’s headline reads, “Danny Willett 'wasn't especially good', say shocked former clubmates,” and I as someone who started playing golf at an early age and watched in wonder as my “wasn’t so good” peers progressed. I have to ask myself what was the difference that made the difference? And have to say that if there is one simple answer based on my observations is that a wee bit of cockiness comes in very handy and that my more successful peers did appear to be born with this mental attribute.

How champions thinkOver at The Wall Street Journal, James Zug is reviewing Bob Rotella’s recent book How Champions Think and writes.

“Writing months before Jordan Spieth’s runaway victory at the 2015 Masters, Mr. Rotella points out Mr. Spieth’s unusual mental strength.“If you stood behind him and a dozen other young stars on the practice range and you didn’t know who he was, you’d probably not select him as the best of the bunch,” Mr. Rotella writes. But Mr. Spieth has an “excellent mental game”: He talks about being “indifferent to what his competitors were doing. . . . He didn’t fall into the trap of thinking much about where he stood in the tournament and trying to force things.”

Given Jordan’s 2016 Masters’ experience some may suggest Rotella got it wrong but not so. Spieth displayed unusual mental strength by competing to the very end in spite of his catastrophic 12th hole and the fact that he was far from his best ball-striking form.

In conclusion and on cockinessHelen Ridd quotes Jonathan Pyle, “I remember playing against him (Danny Willett) at the British Open qualifiers and hearing him yapping and yapping, bouncing around on the putting green, going on about how he was going to win and thinking: ‘you really think so?’ Then of course he did win.” And I really think this level of cockiness comes hard wired within you when you’re born.

"I think I'm lucky that Jason (Lydia’s caddie) kind of talked me out of not going for the green in two," said Ko, facing a 3-wood shot over water from a downhill lie if she went for it."I knew if I mis-hit it, it was going to go straight in the water. 'He said, 'Hey, we can still make birdie going the conventional way.' I decided to hit an 8-iron out and hit a sand wedge."

The above is from the New Zealand Herald covering Lydia Ko’s second major victory and the headline reads “Golf: Ko credits caddie's sage advice”.Vive la differenceLydia’s wise choice of taking her caddie’s advice brought to mind something I wrote way back in February 02, 2012 in regards to the most famous final hole collapse in golf history, Frenchman Jean Van de Velde at Carnoustie.

There’s no record of the dialogue between Jean and his caddie as to club selection for his second although from what I’ve recorded it appears he had already made up his mind.The difference between Jean’s attitude and Lydia’s decision was the difference that made the difference.I wrote in that February 2012 blog words taken from my book Life’s Lessons Frae the Links.The second story involves Jean Van de Velde’s famous final-hole collapse at Carnoustie.

“If Jean had found, as could have been expected, a rugged rrrough lie he would’ve been forced to wedge it out on to the fairway and left himself a short iron to the green and still have some shots up his sleeve to win.

Instead to his everlasting credit, that’s only my opinion and not shared by Curtis Strange who said of Jean’s decision to hit a 2-iron, it was, “the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.”

As for Jean’s thoughts on the decision, he said, “I didn’t feel comfortable hitting a wedge. To me, it was against the spirit of the game. I’m going to hit a wedge, then another wedge, and then what? Three-putt from thirty-feet to win by one? Okay, fair enough I’d win by one, but what a way to finish!”

Neither man won their chance to win their respective Majors but I do believe Jean’s go-for-it attitude is the difference that makes the difference between winners, losers and those who can live with their decision to go for it."

The other side of the storyThe other man referred to in my blog and book involves Chip Beck at the Masters and begins, “The first story involves Chip Beck at The Masters.

“Standing looking over the second shot to the 15th during the 1993 Masters we (Chip Beck and his caddy Steve Bender) had a decision to make. Go for the green in two shots or play it as a three-shotter?You can read the full story by clicking on the link below and concludes with, “Beck decided to play safe and when Bender asked him why, he replied, “I didn’t want to mess my round up.”

“Geoff Ogilvy still says, "At that point [2009] I would have bet you every dollar I had that he would break Jack's record." This is an excerpt from Alan Shipnuck’s extensive coverage in, “What Happened to Tiger Woods? It's the Most Vexing Question in Sports?”

What happened?Alan writes, “Given that Tiger has taken four green jackets with three different golf swings, one more reinvention is not inconceivable. Can he reclaim his destiny and break Nicklaus's record of 18 major championships? That quest seems incidental in the face of the question that still festers: What happened?”The simple answer is there is no simple answer but there are some clues. Starting with did he still have the desire?

Tired of being Tiger WoodsAlan writes, “In 2006 and '07, Woods talked more and more about becoming a SEAL, and Haney became so exasperated by what he felt was an unhealthy obsession that one day in 2007, while they practiced in a bunker at Isleworth, he played his trump card: "Are you out of your mind? What about Nicklaus's record? Don't you care about that?""No," Woods replied. "I'm satisfied with what I've done in my career."Looking back, Haney now says, "That was a big wow. I finally understood he really doesn't give a s---. It was obvious in the way his work ethic fell off and in his attitude on the course that he had lost a lot of his desire. On some level he was just tired of being Tiger Woods."Alan also comments on how Tiger’s father predicted his son would win 14 majors and some would say it became a self-fulfilling prophecy but also begs the question why not target at least 18 to match Jack Nicklaus?

2009/2010 – The turning point?Alan Shipnuck quotes Jason Gore. "At tournaments he would look at you and burn a hole right through you, like you didn't even exist. He did that to me all the time, and I've known him probably longer than anybody on Tour."

Alan continues, “After the scandal Gore could sense that Woods felt a strong need for connection: "He realized there's more going on in this world than birdies and bogeys. He started asking about my wife, asking about my kids. It was nice to see him be, you know, normal."As to a specific point in time where Tiger began to lose it, Alan comments on how Tiger was “Y.E. Yang'd”. Referring to Tiger’s 2019 loss which would turn the tide.

Toppling the TigerRoss Starkey covers this momentous moment very well when he writes, “The year 2009 is as important in golf as Lex Luther’s discovery of the effects of kryptonite was on Superman. It was the year YE Yang broke Tiger.As the rest of the world, realised Tiger Woods wasn’t unbeatable, it set in motion a chain of events that, six years later, golf is still coming to terms with.

YE Yang didn’t just become the first Asian man to win a major championship, he also became the first person to topple a 54 hole Tiger Woods lead in a major championship.On that Sunday at Hazeltine in the 2009 US PGA Championship, Yang out-Tigered Tiger. Never before had we seen Woods play as timid as he did during the final round. Never before had we seen a player so unfazed by the prospect of going head to head with Woods and never before had we seen a player play more like Woods than Woods.”Spieth - Shades of Nick FaldoGiven that it’s been written that it was while watching the Masters Sir Nick decided to start playing golf and likewise Jordan Spieth. Alan writes, “When Jordan Spieth was 11, one shot changed his life, but it wasn't one he struck. Back then Spieth was a pitcher with a filthy curveball and a shooting guard who could fill up a stat sheet. "I was just starting to pick golf as my No. 1 sport and fall in love with it," Spieth says. "That really cemented it."